Jammu Tawi, March 20 -- Ruling out any possibility of communicable disease at Badhal village in Rajouri district, where 17 people died due to mysterious illness earlier this year, the government on Wednesday said that toxic substances in food and environmental samples led to these deaths.

As Question Hour began, NC's Javed Iqbal Choudhary raised the demand for a CBI probe into the deaths after Minister for Health and Medical Education Sakina Ittoo informed the House that half-a-dozen toxins were detected from samples collected in the area as well as from viscera of the deceased.

Replying to a question raised by Javaid Iqbal Choudhary in the Legislative Assembly the government in a written reply, stated that clinical and laboratory inve...